Disabling Adobe Reader X Plug-In

HI,

Yes. Move the plugin to the Desktop.

Quit Safari (Command + Q) then relaunch Safari. It might need a relaunch for the changes to take effect. Hopefully that will disable it without sending it to the Trash.

FAQ's here for that software. http://www.adobe.com/products/reader/faq.html





Carolyn 😉

I just move it to a Disabled Plug-ins folder that I created in /Library/Internet Plug-ins/. BTW, a Safari quit and relaunch is necessary.

Close your browser. Open the Reader X application and select the preferences option; select the Internet preference setting, finally uncheck the "Display PDF in browser using..." box. Relaunch your browser. No need to move the plugin to a disabled folder.

I've been following the many posts on the Preview vs. Reader PDF problem, but so far haven't found a simple answer as to how to make Preview the default PDF reader rather than Adobe Reader. It was the default on my machine for years before suddenly, recently, everything started opening in AR regardless whether in Safari or Firefox.

I tried the solution proposed above by lkrupp. Opened the Reader app, selected Preference, selected Internet, but there was no box labeled "Display PDF in browser using..." Instead, the only box present was labeled "Check browser settings when starting Reader." That doesn't seem like the same thing. Or is it?

Moving the AR plug-in from Library Internet Plug-ins to someplace else doesn't seem to be an option, either, as there's no such Plug-in listed in my Library. Not that I can find, anyway.

This all started a few months ago when I clicked on something in Firefox in order to view a bank statement or whatever. A question box popped up asking whether I wanted to use Adobe Reader and I absently clicked OK. From that day forward, ALL PDFs have been displayed in AR regardless whether using Safari or Firefox. I really don't like AR for the same reasons others have posted.

Any suggestion for restoring Preview to the default viewer will be appreciated. Please couch your instructions in words any three-year-old could follow, step-by-step, as I am NOT a computer whiz.

Thanks in advance!

Hi Dr H

the plugin might be in

/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/

copy & paste that into a Safari address bar or a Finder-Go-Go to Folder dialogue - it should take you right there.

or it could be in

~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/

again, copy/paste - this one's in your home library.

Hi Andy --

Thanks for your response.

Finding /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/ isn't the problem. The problem is that there is nothing in there referring to Adobe Reader. For those more computer literate than I, here is a copy/paste of the contents of that section:

DRM Plugin.bundle
Flash Player Enabler.plugin
Flash Player.plugin
flashplayer.xpt
JavaPlugin2_NPAPI.plugin
JavaPluginCocoa.bundle
NP-PPC-Dir-Shockwave
nsIQTScriptablePlugin.xpt
Quartz Composer.webplugin
QuickTime Plugin.plugin
QuickTime Plugin.webplugin
RealPlayer Plugin
RealPlayer Plugin.xpt
VerifiedDownloadPlugin.plugin
Windows Media Plugin

There's no Adobe Reader for me to move elsewhere as some previous posters have instructed.

Can you, or anyone, suggest any further course of action? Thanks in advance!

and the Home library one - empty?

To clarify - AR is opening the pdf's within Safari, yes? they're not downloading to the desktop & then opening in AR?

If so, then safari's built-in pdf support has been disabled & we'll hopefully whizz it back with a Terminal command.

Hi Andy --

Sorry for the delay in responding.

Yes, the Home library one is empty. Clicking on the little triangle causes it to point downward, but nothing appears.

Yes, your clarification is correct: AR opens PDFs within Safari, not onto the desktop. It does the same in Firefox, which I also wish could be changed, but that's another matter.

I like the sound of whizzing things back to normal with a Terminal command...whatever that is.

Thanks in advance!

Hi

Use Safari-Help Installed Plug-Ins to get the +from file “QuickTime Plugin.plugin+ equivalent for your pdf one. Then we've got a name and can use say Find any File to locate it.
http://apps.tempel.org/FindAnyFile/

Normally, plugins have to be in one of those folders to be recognised - so this is puzzling... although there was a guy recently had Flash persisting despite it not being where you'd expect.

I think firefox does give you specific file type control as to downloading or opening with or plugins... have a hunt in its preferences.

Hi Andy --

Wow, I understood part of what you wrote. I got as far as the Installed Plug-Ins page and was confronted with charts that might have well have been written in Cyrillic. MIME Type, Description, Extensions by the dozens. Here's the chart from file QuickTime Plugin.plugin:


QuickTime Plug-in 7.6.6
The QuickTime Plugin allows you to view a wide variety of multimedia content in web pages. For more information, visit the QuickTime Web site. — from file “QuickTime Plugin.plugin”.
MIME Type Description Extensions
audio/x-mp3 MP3 audio mp3,swa
audio/x-m4a AAC audio m4a
video/x-m4v Video (protected) m4v
image/x-jpeg2000-image JPEG2000 image jp2
video/flc AutoDesk Animator (FLC) flc,fli,cel
image/x-png PNG image png
image/x-sgi SGI image sgi,rgb
image/x-bmp BMP image bmp,dib
audio/x-m4p AAC audio (protected) m4p
image/jp2 JPEG2000 image jp2
audio/x-midi MIDI mid,midi,smf,kar
audio/x-mpeg3 MP3 audio mp3,swa
audio/3gpp2 3GPP2 media 3g2,3gp2
audio/mp4 MPEG-4 media mp4
video/sd-video SD video sdv
audio/ac3 AC3 audio ac3
video/3gpp 3GPP media 3gp,3gpp
audio/mpeg MPEG audio mpeg,mpg,m1s,m1a,mp2,mpm,mpa,m2a,mp3,swa
video/x-mpeg MPEG media mpeg,mpg,m1s,m1v,m1a,m75,m15,mp2,mpm,mpv,mpa
audio/basic uLaw/AU audio au,snd,ulw
audio/mp3 MP3 audio mp3,swa
application/x-sdp SDP stream descriptor sdp
audio/mpeg3 MP3 audio mp3,swa
video/quicktime QuickTime Movie mov,qt,mov,qt,mqv
video/msvideo Video For Windows (AVI) avi,vfw
audio/midi MIDI mid,midi,smf,kar
image/x-macpaint MacPaint image pntg,pnt,mac
image/x-targa TGA image targa,tga
audio/x-mpeg MPEG audio mpeg,mpg,m1s,m1a,mp2,mpm,mpa,m2a,mp3,swa
audio/x-m4b AAC audio book m4b
image/pict PICT image pict,pic,pct
image/x-quicktime QuickTime image qtif,qti
audio/x-gsm GSM audio gsm
audio/x-wav WAVE audio wav,bwf
video/mpeg MPEG media mpeg,mpg,m1s,m1v,m1a,m75,m15,mp2,mpm,mpv,mpa
video/x-msvideo Video For Windows (AVI) avi,vfw
audio/x-caf CAF audio caf
application/x-mpeg AMC media amc
audio/x-aiff AIFF audio aiff,aif,aifc,cdda
image/png PNG image png
image/x-pict PICT image pict,pic,pct
video/3gpp2 3GPP2 media 3g2,3gp2
audio/wav WAVE audio wav,bwf
application/sdp SDP stream descriptor sdp
audio/aiff AIFF audio aiff,aif,aifc,cdda
image/jpeg2000-image JPEG2000 image jp2
audio/mid MIDI mid,midi,smf,kar
audio/amr AMR audio amr
application/x-rtsp RTSP stream descriptor rtsp,rts
audio/x-aac AAC audio aac,adts
image/tiff TIFF image tif,tiff
image/x-tiff TIFF image tif,tiff
audio/3gpp 3GPP media 3gp,3gpp
audio/aac AAC audio aac,adts
video/avi Video For Windows (AVI) avi,vfw
audio/vnd.qcelp QUALCOMM PureVoice audio qcp,qcp
audio/x-ac3 AC3 audio ac3
video/mp4 MPEG-4 media mp4
image/jpeg2000 JPEG2000 image jp2

None of this means anything to me. Now what?

Re: Firefox. I've dug through every nook and cranny I can find in its Preferences, but there's nothing shown as a way to choose which reader one prefers. Oy, what a dilemma!

Thanks in advance, as always.

Hi 🙂

the quicktime one was just an example - so say if you look at that, you can see the section

from file “QuickTime Plugin.plugin”.

If you were trying to find where the quicktime plugin file was, you might usefully enter that name
QuickTime Plugin.plugin into Finder-search or the Find any File app I suggested.

But you need to locate some pdf plugin... so trawl (or Command-F and search for pdf 🙂 ) your way through the installed plug-ins page, and get the from file"...." name for the pdf plugin , copy it, paste it into FaF or a finder-find - and you will hopefully get a location for it.

Activity Monitor can also give a list of open files in use by specific applications.

Normally, any plugin would be in one of the Library/Internet Plug-Ins/ folders - but seemingly it's not - so we need to find out 1: if it's a plugin & 2: where the file is.

{quote:title=lkrupp wrote:}
Close your browser. Open the Reader X application and select the preferences option; select the Internet preference setting, finally uncheck the "Display PDF in browser using..." box. Relaunch your browser. No need to move the plugin to a disabled folder.{quote}

ikrupp, this did not work for me. Has it worked for anyone else?

I have installed Reader 10.0.1 on 2 systems. In both cases the option to uncheck "Display PDF in browser using /Applications/Adobe Reader.app" is grayed out. Is there a way to get back to using Preview to display PDFs in Safari, without removing the Reader plug-in, which requires admin privileges and would affect all users.

In addition, each time I launch the Reader application I'm presented with a dialog to make Adobe Reader the default PDF reader. After I agreed I can not find a simple way to undo this.

Answering my own question. Apparently the inability to disable the plug-in is a known issue. ikrupp was wrong, it can't be done.
Source:
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/870/cpsid_87060.html

Known issues

Reader's Preferences > Internet > Display PDF in Browser is always dimmed
To disable Safari integration, delete the AdobePDFViewer.plugin from /Library/Internet Plug-ins
To reenable Safari integration, rerun the installer over the current installation. Start the Acrobat/Reader X installer from the original media, and then follow the onscreen prompts to complete the installation.